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The Get Set Yeti app is in development, themed around a clan of yeti characters, that allows younger children to understand their emotions, through discovering ‘emotion beasties’, enabling difficult concepts to be put across in an age accessible and engaging way.

Background

Get Set Yeti is a Digital Education business, that specialises in using storytelling and character-based learning to make Growth Mindset accessible to younger children at school and at home.  They aim to level the ‘educational playing field’ by helping children from all walks of life develop the skills to become confident, resilient learners.  They also provide materials for parents to build their confidence and capacity to do the things at home that have an impact on creating solid school foundations in Early Literacy and Early Numeracy.  

Get Set Yeti supports educators and parents to help children develop learning resilience and confidence through building a growth mindset, and through emotional literacy. They offer a range of programmes and resources themed around a clan of yeti characters.  

The company came into existence through recognition of a need in the field and has been developed by its founder Carol Arnott. An experienced practitioner both in Primary and Community Education, Carol employed Growth Mindset techniques initially to develop a rhyming story to help local families struggling with learning confidence. The story of “The Yeti’s Roar” was born, developed into a book which grew into a learning programme that was successfully trialled in several local schools and nurseries in the Dundee area.  

Developing the programme became a passion of Carol’s and with the help of Business Gateway and the Elevator Business Accelerator, where Carol was introduced to Interface, her business began and demand quickly developed to the stage of looking to grow the team and expand into other cities – then Covid hit.  Unable to get into schools due to closures and distancing regulations and with other contracts put on hold it became apparent that digital learning was the way forward.  A new site was built and ‘Get Set Yeti’ evolved and grew. 

The Challenge

Get Set Yeti was created to provide Growth Mindset resources for children under 8 due to the lack of material available. In the educational climate, there was a growing need for children to learn to be more resilient in learning and it was widely recognised that learning to develop a ‘Growth Mindset’ could successfully meet this need. 

Get Set Yeti was interested in developing an app or platform that could help young children understand and process emotions using Growth Mindset to help maintain positive mental health.   

The Solution

Through the Accelerator in Dundee, Carol met Lorna Watson of Interface who identified University of Dundee’s Dr Michael Crabb (School of Science and Engineering) and Dr Alexia Barrable (School of Education and Social Work) who had the required academic expertise to develop an app that could help younger children develop emotional literacy and self-regulation. This initial project was taken forward with a £5000 Standard Innovation Voucher.  

The team at the University of Dundee helped initialise ‘The Yeti Field Guide to Feelings’ app to help children develop emotional literacy, supported by parents and educators.   

Based on the premise that deep in the forest on top of Yeti Mountain the yetis sometimes come across ‘Emotion Beasties’ that have escaped from children in the villages below. Once caught, the yetis learn how to look after them using their special book ‘The Yeti Field Guide to Feelings’.  They learn that caring for feelings takes practise and learn techniques to manage them through online interaction and additional printable activities and resources.   

The app will incorporate: 

This innovation sits right at the heart of Get Set Yeti’s core strategy as it uses process design to help children and families understand difficult concepts and gives them the tools to develop skills to learn successfully using Growth Mindset techniques. 

The Benefits

The Next Steps

Get Set Yeti have transitioned through the restrictions brought about by Covid19, transforming from a localised, face-to-face delivery company to an online-learning portal with international potential.  

Following on from this initial project the relationship between Interface and Get Set Yeti has continued to grow and there have been several more successful student projects/placements for a range of things from marketing to behavioural analysis as follows: 

Due the restrictions brought about through Covid19 Get Set Yeti pivoted to produce a digital version of their material and with the help of Abertay University the company developed a digital marketing strategy to promote their digital offering and transform from a localised business to offer their products nationally and develop a marketing campaign to appeal to local authorities, head teachers, infant teachers and parents. 
 
A successful student placement project with the University of West of Scotland helped Get Set Yeti achieve a targeted marketing campaign appealing to potential clients and partners; utilising social media and other appropriate available channels. 

The University of Stirling undertook some behavioural analysis to help Get Set Yeti understand and develop customer personas to allow them to enter new markets and target their future campaigns for maximum impact.  
 
University of Highlands and Islands students are currently working directly with the Musical Director and CEO to help devise a digital marketing and social media campaign to promote an album of original ‘Yeti Songs’ to enhance the delivery of Growth Mindset learning to younger children and their families. 
 
 

Background

Millport Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) is jointly funded  by Historic Environment Scotland and North Ayrshire Council and aims to preserve the historical features of Millport (Isle of Cumbrae) and reinvigorate it as a seaside and island destination.  The conservation works are supported by an outreach plan aiming to engage local community and visitors with the local heritage and history.

Challenge

One of the aims of the outreach plan was to engage local children with local heritage via a series of face-to-face workshops that would explore the history and heritage of the area, including Scottish culture, language and tradition.

However, due to COVID-19 and the resulting isolation rules for home schooling, Kasia Smith, the Millport CARS officer, needed to develop an alternative to her planned face-to-face activities and had an idea to use Minecraft to engage with the children.  She turned to Mari Findlay from Interface to help her find a suitable academic partner or student group that could develop a heritage themed interactive game that could be used in both classroom and remotely in a home learning environment based on a very modest budget.   

Solution

Mari introduced Kasia to the internationally renowned School of Design and Informatics at Abertay University; Europe’s top-ranked institution for video games education. Supported by teaching fellow Kayleigh Macleod, the project was assigned to games students Claire Monaghan, Fergus Coyne and Romain Bourdon who worked on the project for three months.

Due to travel restrictions, the students were unable to visit the island before they began their work and had to use images and other online resources as their only point of reference.  Housed on the Minecraft Education platform, Cumbraecraft has been designed with eight distinct lessons and is designed to let children explore local heritage landmarks and learn more about their local history.  

Benefits

In addition to enhancing the Curriculum for Excellence – the national curriculum for Scottish schools – Cumbraecraft has demonstrated how games can engage young people with learning about their heritage in a visual, interactive and fun way.  Additional benefits also included contributing to an electronic record of local heritage as well as introducing young people to potential career options in gaming and computer arts.

Depending on the success of this pilot project, the potential is there for implementing this tested and fully evaluated model across other schools within North Ayrshire Council, as well as a package for other conservation projects across Scotland.

Background 

W&J Knox Ltd, based in Ayrshire, is the largest UK manufacturer and servicing agent of Aquaculture nets. The company provides cage nets primarily to the salmon farming industry and on a biannual basis they transport the nets back to its servicing facility for washing, repairing and drying before returning them to the fish farm. 

Challenge 

Aquaculture nets have to be washed regularly to remove the marine plants and animals that attach to the netting restricting the flow of water to the fish contained within.  

Washing the commercial fishing nets from the salmon farming industry produces several hundred tonnes per year of a solid material rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, fish oil proteins and calcium from mussel shells and includes copper which is dried into cake. 

Following a referral from North Ayrshire Council, Interface worked with the company to identify suitable academic support to analyse this waste product and suggest a use for the nutrient rich solid cake produced from the process. The ‘cake’ which goes to an approved landfill site may have value in the nutrients contained within it which could be used to create a new product and thus reducing the volume and cost of the material going to landfill.  

Solution 

The School of Applied Sciences at Abertay University were able to support the company due to their experience in handling such waste materials, extraction of bioactive ingredients and quantification of bioactive compounds.  

Through a feasibility study, funded through a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, the university were able to analyse the waste product and its potential use.  

Follow on Activity 

Following the initial feasibility study, a researcher has now been employed by Abertay University, through the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme (KTP), to investigate how the useful materials can be extracted from the waste cakes. Instead of being sent to landfill, tonnes of salvaged protein and oil will now be turned into livestock feed for the likes of fish, pigs and chickens. 

Company benefits

Academic Benefits

Mari Findlay, Business Engagement Executive, Interface: 

“W & J Knox are a fantastic example of a company who thought they had a nutrient rich waste product that could be used in another format as well as helping to reduce landfill. By collaborating with Abertay University on an initial feasibility study they were able to confirm their initial thoughts and progress to a KTP, which will allow them to produce a valuable protein rich animal feed.”

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Yekemi Otaru (founder of YO! Marketing, now merged with Doqaru Ltd) had an innovative idea to use machine learning to identify the marketing activities that generate the greatest impact on business growth. This would result in a world’s first machine-learning marketing algorithm. This was created with collaboration from cyber-security and machine-learning experts from Abertay University.

Challenge

Conducting marketing activities can be a constant challenge for many businesses that are time-constrained, have limited resources, little marketing expertise and a budget that only goes so far. Yekemi’s idea was to design an intelligent solution, based on a data model, of using a machine learning algorithm to identify the marketing activities that generate the greatest impact on business growth.

Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides computers with the ability to automatically learn over time without being explicitly programmed. Machine Learning had not previously been used by Marketing companies in this way. 

Yekemi approached Interface to help her find the necessary academic expertise in Machine Learning, Dataset Modelling and Data Mining to solve this challenge.

Solution

After conducting a search across various universities, Interface matched the entrpreneur with Dr Xavier Bellekens, Assistant Professor and Lecturer at Abertay University within the Division of Cyber-Security, where he leads the Machine Learning Research Group. Dr Bellekens was a perfect match for this project as he has a strong interest and extensive expertise in this field.

Abertay University offers extensive expertise in big and small data analytics, machine-learning, critical infrastructure protection, and the Internet of Things (IoT), both on security and the development side.

This collaborative project was set up to develop the intelligence behind Yekemi’s prototype (GO YO), an integrated online platform for marketing purposes.

The project was split into two parts: the first activity was the development of a dataset used to train the algorithm to predict the best routes to create impacts for a business. The second was the evaluation of the algorithm, ultimately leading to a highly intelligent platform that learns with time, taking into consideration the product lifecycle, giving tailored advice and helping businesses to manage the performance of their products in the marketplace, informing action plans and marketing strategies.

Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it to learn for themselves. It is based on learning by example, finding the right algorithm for the task and obtaining accurate results. This is a challenging task which can be achieved only through the assessment and research process.

This project was funded through a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface.

Business benefits

This project provided the former YO! Marketing with a world’s first machine learning marketing algorithm, setting the business apart from other marketing companies in the marketplace, making the decision-making process easier for business owners with limited marketing experience.​ 

Academic benefits

Economic benefits

Yekemi Otaru’s aim with this project was to help businesses with limited marketing expertise grow their business with advisory, planning and performance planning without the large cost outlay of trying multiple marketing techniques. 
YO! Marketing has now merged with Doqaru Ltd.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Droman Crime Solutions Ltd is a collective of Cyber Security specialists covering a range of backgrounds including Police, Defence, Academia, Government, Industry and Business Systems.

The company was set up in Scotland in January 2015 with a mission to use technology to deliver education and raise awareness to areas like cybercrime.

Considering the rapidly changing nature of technology, the company was looking to develop a prototype demonstrator of cyber security training for police officers through games-based learning instead of a traditional classroom-based training.

Challenge

Cybercrime continues to be one of the fastest growing areas of crime in the UK and upskilling police officers in how to respond to and prevent cyber-crime is vital to ensure that Scotland continues to be a safe place to live and do business.

The company was lacking the academic and technical expertise to develop a working demonstrator using game technology and provide evaluation of technology informed learning and was seeking an academic partner to create and develop this new learning tool.

They were looking to create a web based solution that can be easily accessible on a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer to allow flexible learning schedule and can be easily and quickly updated to reflect changes in technology.

Solution

Thanks to the funding from the Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface, Droman Crime Solutions partnered with Abertay University and Police Scotland to deliver this new game-based solution to combat cybercrime.

Abertay University has an internationally recognised expertise and reputation as the UK’s leading university in computer games education and creative arts.  It combines the three essentials for the partner to deliver this prototype: a highly technical domain (cyber security), a state-of-the-art delivery medium (serious gaming) and the assessment of learning required to assess the impact of this technology.

Benefits:

This project will enable a cross-disciplinary co-operation which will serve as a platform to further projects and research in areas of serious games and cyber security.

The Scottish economy will benefit through the transfer of knowledge from a Scottish university to a Scottish business.

Upskilling the Police Service of Scotland in how to respond to and prevent incidents of cyber-crime will lead to Scotland being a safer place to do business and ultimately enable a more resilient Scottish economy.  

Paddy Tomkins, chairman of Droman Crime Solutions, said: 

“Cybercrime continues to be a top-level threat to the UK generally and has the potential to disrupt commerce, public services and international confidence.

“Thanks to funding from the Scottish Funding Council administered by Interface, we have spent over a year working with our partners in Abertay University and Police Scotland to develop this new learning tool.

“Our innovation has the potential to ensure that communities across Scotland are served by appropriately trained, skilled and confident police officers and staff.”

Dr Iain Donald, Lecturer in Interactive Media Production at Abertay, commented:

“We specifically designed this as a game-based solution to the challenge of training thousands of police personnel who might be the first responders to an incident of cybercrime by telephone or scene visit.

“Currently, as evidenced by various inspection reports, UK criminal justice organisations experience significant difficulties in providing mainstream training to large numbers of their operational front-line staff.”

“Interface has helped Abertay bring industry to the classroom. Within the School of Arts, Media and Computer Games we’ve greatly enjoyed the diversity of project, companies and innovative solutions that have enabled us to collaborate with a wide range of Scottish Tech companies.”  

Follow on activity

The project had resulted in both new products and new jobs. Paddy Tomkins aanticipates that turnover would increase and would result in 5 new jobs. In addition, they have invested £100k into R&D.

Additional notes

The project was awarded with the 1000th Innovation Voucher by the Scottish Funding Council administered by Interface.

Droman Director Paddy Tomkins discussing how games can be used for cybersecurity training on the BBC Crimewatch Roadshow 22nd June 2017. 

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Founded in the early 1900’s, Bon Accord was a family-run soft drink manufacturer who distributed carbonated soft drinks to households across Scotland until the company ceased manufacturing circa 2000. Using the recognised Bon Accord name, and with a new generation at the helm, the family, led by the great, great, granddaughter of the founder, have re-branded and re-launched Bon Accord soft drinks.

Challenge

Conducting some initial research, Bon Accord was struck by the lack of Scottish all-natural, non-alcoholic drinks available on the market and were looking to fill this gap.

Solution

Interface connected Bon Accord to Food Innovation at Abertay (FIA), who has the technical expertise as well as industry and consumer knowledge to assist Bon Accord in its development of a range of premium, carbonated soft drinks.

Funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, the FIA team undertook

Benefits

The company now has a range of three new carbonated drinks that can either be used as mixers for alcoholic drinks or be enjoyed on their own; tonic water, cloudy lemonade, and sparkling rhubarb.  It has also benefited from work undertaken by marketing students at Abertay University who helped it with market research on the rebranding of the company.

“Interface put us in contact with the Food Innovation team at Abertay University. From the outset, the team at Abertay were hugely enthusiastic about the project and their knowledge, expertise and first class facilities allowed us to develop our fantastic range of soft drinks and mixers.” said Karen Knowles, Bon Accord.

“The Bon Accord project was an interesting challenge for the FIA team.  The development of new flavour profiles using natural ingredients which also met with consumer acceptance was achieved after many recipes trials and consumer tests.  FIA was delighted to provide Bon Accord with three initial products to launch onto the market and look forward to working with it again in the future.”  Jennifer Bryson, Food Innovation @ Abertay

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.​

Ivan Wood & Sons Limited is a small, family run business based in Fife.  It is a wholesaler of fruit and vegetables, principally to the catering trade.  It has been developing and growing its processing facility for vegetable preparation, always trying out new ways to extend shelf-life and to provide the best possible product to its customers. 

Challenge

With new legislation coming into force in January 2016, intending to stop the disposal of starch from foods like rice and potatoes going into the water supply and blocking pipes, businesses such as fish and chip shops, fast food outlets, and Chinese takeaways will need to have a mechanism in place to restrict the amount of starch that is going down their drains.

To comply with this new legislation, Malcolm Wood, Managing Director of Ivan Wood & Sons, developed an affordable starch filtration system design so that his business, which processes 30,000 kilos of potatoes a week, would meet the requirements of the new legislation.

Its suitability for broader use, however, soon became apparent, with Malcolm identifying a gap in the market for an affordable filtration system to help other small businesses.

He said:

“When I first started working on this design, I had no idea it was going to have so much potential.”

Whilst developing a working prototype, Malcolm was put in touch with Interface who would be able to connect him to academic experts from across Scotland for further development of the prototype. The connection was established through a referral to Food Health & Innovation Service (FHIS) by Business Gateway.

Solution

After sending out a search to various universities within Scotland, Interface connected Malcolm with Abertay University.  The partnership submitted a joint application for funding and, ultimately, secured a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) from Innovate UK and the Scottish Funding Council.

Regarding his invention, Malcolm Wood says that:

“Although there are systems that exist which do something similar, they are priced far too high for most businesses to be able to afford them.”

“I certainly couldn’t, so I’m really pleased to have been awarded this KTP with Abertay, as it means my invention will be able to help other businesses that would otherwise be struggling to find a way to comply with the new legislation.”

Business Benefits

Dr Jon Wilkin, Senior Food Technologist at Abertay’s food & drink business support service, Food Innovation @ Abertay, said that the KTP

“means we’ll be able to build Malcolm’s model commercially, ensure that it works and also investigate new ways to make use of the starch that’s extracted through the process so that nothing goes to waste”.

He added that with more than 10,500 fish and chips shops in the UK, and an equal number of Chinese and Indian takeaways who will need to meet the new legislation, this is a huge business opportunity for Ivan Wood & Sons.

“The hotel and restaurant trade will also have to adapt, so Malcolm has really hit on a great idea with this model, as there is a genuine commercial need for it,” he continued.

Dr Jon Wilkin, who leads the project with Professor Joe Akuna from the University’s Urban Water Technology Centre, also noted that Malcolm Wood’s business has already been contacted by third parties interested in purchasing the final product.

“We’re looking forward to getting started on this new project,” Jon said.

Following the project the KTP Associate from Abertay University was employed full time by Ivan Wood & Sons Ltd. A second KTP project with Abertay University is on the horizon for Ivan Wood & Sons to investigate how PeelTech could be used for domestic use.

Academic Benefits

The benefits to academia on working on such a collaboration are many:

Company update 2020

Peel Tech units are now being utilised in clearing and collecting algae for medicinal purposes as well as use in the green energy sector and is being trialled in the fish processing sector. 

Awards

Ivan Wood and Sons are now working with the University of Edinburgh on a Resource Efficiency Common Interest Group project looking into how PeelTech can be used in UV water filtration to remove bacteria in the recycling of water from fisheries. 

Established in 2012, Tomintoul & Glenlivet Development Trust is a community led regeneration project based in the North East of Scotland. The Trust was created to drive economic regeneration in the area and has a wide remit covering maintenance, regeneration and improvement of the community’s physical, economic, social and cultural infrastructure.

The Trust is focussed on developing the area to enrich the visitor experience, and extending their current season to include sports activities aimed at a younger demographic. Their long term plan being to market the area as the outdoor hub of Moray, these activities include a cycling festival, a motorcycle gathering and further development of the existing walking and whisky festivals.

The Business Challenge

Keen to use digital media to enhance the current visitor experience, the Trust’s aim is to develop the area’s technological infrastructure enabling it to support digital tourism. Conducting a trial marketing project in their already successful whisky sector, aiming to integrate the area’s oral tradition with local history in a site specific tour, would be the ideal first step in the process.

Based on the famous Glenlivet whisky, The Smuggler’s Trail would give them the chance to understand how technology would be used and at what cost; the practicalities of using it in rural areas- would GPS be an option or were localised servers more feasible; and how would they deliver the idea, would the data be held in the area or would visitors need to download it first?

The overall challenge of drawing in a younger audience required them firstly to ascertain market demand for their ‘outdoor adventure’ activities, carrying out local research but also seeking internationally successful examples offering key points to follow. They therefore needed marketing expertise.

If the Smuggler’s Trail tours are successful, the Trust’s aim is to take this new expertise and, combining this with the new market research, integrate digital technologies more fully into their overall future marketing plan.

The Solution

The Trust’s Local Development Officer, Lindsay Robertson, met Interface’s Kathryn Fraser at the Interface Digital Tourist event and Lindsay soon realised that Interface, with direct access to world class research expertise, would be able to help with both challenges.

Kathryn worked with Lindsay to create a working brief which would be sent to academics across Scotland inviting them to pitch for the project.

Having selected a number of interested parties from a range of universities and research institutions across Scotland, Kathryn put Lindsay in touch with Edinburgh Napier University, whose Centre for Interaction Design would be ideal. Having carried out research in digital applications they provided the perfect environment to test out the pilot project.

With this pilot now in development, Lindsay was keen to follow up by starting on market research for their overall rebrand. Knowing that Abertay University have an excellent Retail Marketing Programme, Kathryn put Lyndsay in touch with them.

Benefits

The Trust is currently considering findings delivered by both Edinburgh Napier and Abertay University. With access to leading digital technologies and space to trial the practical implications of their rurally based concept, Edinburgh Napier University has identified the most suitable platform and will be working with the Trust on its’ implementation. Crucially this research and development stage only required the Trust to match the academic time spent with their own. This will ultimately ensure the success of their ‘Smuggler’s Trail’ enabling this format to then be rolled out to other local heritage sites in their area.

As well as access to leading international interactive research, the Trust had access to top ranking university students who undertook their market research as part of their degree programme. This meant fully developed market analysis at no cost incurred to the Trust and hugely beneficial exposure to the commercial tourism industry for the students.

According to Lindsay,

“We are delighted to be working with Edinburgh Napier and Abertay Universities through Interface. The process so far has been extremely quick and easy and we hope that the key insights delivered from both institutions will have a huge impact on where we see ourselves in the future – we will certainly be incorporating the finds in our future marketing activity.”

August 2018

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the recently opened Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre, which received funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop a fully immersive visual experience focusing on the past local illicit whisky industry.

Through Interface, the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust, which owns and manages the centre, accessed expert academic support from The University of St Andrews. Virtual reality technology is being developed as well as a 360 degree experience of an illicit still.

Background

Headquartered in Glenbervie near Stonehaven, Scotland, Macphie is the UK’s leading, independent, added-value food ingredients manufacturer, and has been producing premium quality food ingredients and solutions for customers across 40 countries for over 85 years.

Challenge

The company approached Interface to seek help in finding relevant academic collaborators to provide solutions to a range of challenges facing their business. These ranged from reducing saturated fat content and creating “cleaner label” products to rethinking their packaging and storage.
 

Solution

Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects with numerous Scottish Universities to support the business challenges.

Project areas have included:

To date, Macphie has been involved in more than 15 individual collaborative research projects with multiple universities which have yielded cost savings to the business of many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
 

Business benefits

“Innovation is a cornerstone for Macphie, developing new technologies, products, processes and packaging to add value to our business and better meet our customer needs.

Macphie utilises Interface as a Scottish brokering service that brings businesses and universities together. Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects across a range of business requirements with Scottish universities. Using the Interface network, we have managed to completely accelerate our innovation agenda.

At Macphie we now have a rich heritage of academic projects across many aspects of our business. These translate into shaping and driving our innovation agenda. Interface is a crucial partner in enabling us to pair up with the very best academic organisations to achieve success. Our ongoing outlook is to continue to invest resources in long-term, transformational projects to ultimately add even greater value to our customer offering.” Martin Ruck, Macphie’s Head of Research and Development.

Academic benefits

Following a successful masters project with Abertay University on computer and web Enabled Food Product Evaluation System:

“Abertay has a specific interest in pursuing links with industry as part of the University’s Strategic Plan. The work with Macphie is an excellent example of how Abertay can be recognised for developing graduates equipped with the attributes and attitudes to contribute significantly to future economies. 

The work has also been conducive for developing pathways to impact, allowing Abertay to generate an excellent track record with respect to KE activities that generate further income and reputation for the University.”  Dr Nia White, Head of the Graduate School, Abertay University.

Interface also supported Macphie and the University of Edinburgh to develop and test a series of emulsions to use in a commercial setting. This led on to further studies on the role of fat crystallisation in the process of stabilizing emulsions and foams which enabled the company to increase the unsaturated fats in their products.

“It was very interesting for us to apply our expertise in the physics of emulsion technology to support a company developing healthier products.”
Dr Tiffany Wood, Director of the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership, The University of Edinburgh.

Additional notes

Macphie have worked with the following Universities and Research Institutes: University of Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University, Abertay University, Queen Margaret University.